Through the years a great number of toys and amusement playsets have been created which are directed toward developing the artistic capabilities of young children while amusing and entertaining them. These artistic playsets have varied substantially from simple painting sets of brushes and various paints often accompanied by a painting easel or the like to more complex paint sets which provide assisting devices such as stencils or inking stamps and so on. Another type of painting activity playsets describes those commonly referred to as "finger painting" playsets in which a slow drying ink or paint is coated upon a working surface such as paper and manipulated by the child user's fingers and hands.
One of the more exciting type painting sets which has been developed in the art is often referred to as "spin-art". Spin-art relates to the achievement of color patterns upon a rapidly spinning or rotating paint medium. A common use for such spin-art has been found in decorating T-shirts or similar garments. Spin-art has particular appeal to the younger participants due to the ease with which the spin patterns may be obtained and the individual character obtained each time the spin-art is practiced.
One example of such spin-art type painting sets is found in a commercial product sold by the J.C. Penney Company under the trade name of swirl art in which the user applies paint to a spinning media such as paper or cards to achieve different swirl patterns.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,834,070 issued to Breslow, et al. sets forth a DOLL CARRYING A MARKING MEANS AND ACCESSORY WITH MOVABLE MARKING SURFACE in which a combination doll and accessory is provided having movable doll body portions and a movable arm connected thereto. The arm is adapted to hold a paintbrush or the like and the accessory set includes a platen on which paper or the like may be positioned to receive paint from the paintbrush. The platen is mounted on a base structure in front of the doll and a manually actuatable mechanism within the base structure is operatively connected to the mechanism operating the doll. A crank mechanism rotated by the user rotates the platen and simultaneously moves the doll's body and arm to carry the paintbrush alternately between the platen and a paint container positioned alongside the doll.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,875,553 issued to Morgan sets forth a COLOR CHANGING SPINNING TOY in which a rotatable member is coupled to a support frame within which a slidable push rod is supported. A ratcheting gear drive is coupled between the slidable push member and the rotatable platen to cause the platen to rotate as the push rod is rapidly moved back and forth within the frame. A one-way drive coupling mechanism permits the platen to continue freely rotating in the absence of push rod motion. A plurality of super-imposed rotatable elements preferably formed in thin disks display different colors and are differently arranged randomly as the platen rotates.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,496,510 issued to Hanson, et al. sets forth an ACTIVITY TOY which produces a needle craft-like texture design using plastic or amorphous solid substances. A screen is supported in a support housing and an extruder containing an amorphous substance is operated on the underside of the screen to force the material through the mesh spaces of the screen to create a needle craft-like textured design.
While the foregoing described prior art paint sets and similar apparatus have provided several interesting artistic activities, there remains a continuing need in the art for evermore entertaining, amusing and educational paint sets for use by child users.